Photonics is the science and technology of generating, controlling, and detecting photons ("particles" of light), recently celebrated by the International Year of Light 2015.

Many of the research groups in the Centre for Plastic Electronics work on different areas within Photonics. These include lasers and masers, organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) for lighting and displays, plasmonics, metamaterials, and optical filters and coatings.